| February 21st, 2001 - Ladies and Gentlemen... Presenting the Gospel! There's a story about an Anglican priest who was visiting a prisoner on death row and when he had finally gotten past all of the prisoner's mental objections, answered all his questions and carefully laid out God's plan of salvation the prisoner stared hatefully at the priest and said, "If I believed for one second that what you're telling me was true, I'd crawl half way around the world on my hands and knees over broken glass and barbed wire just to tell one person... and you're just now coming to tell me moments before my death??? Naaah! Keep your dead religion, preacher! I don't need it!" When the Gospel is seen for what it really is it will rock your world. It doesn't matter who you are. If not, you ain't seen nothin' yet! That prisoner was outraged that something like that could possibly exist and yet never had it fully explained to him. As the old addage goes, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Gospel means very simply, "Good News". Funny how it's come to mean anything but that to many today! I mean, who wants to hear that they're sinners and under God's wrath? Right? Well, there's a natural progression and flow to presenting the Gospel and it doesn't have to be overly confrontational or weird. First and foremost, it has to be done with God's love. Because that, after all, is what motivated God to present the Gospel to us. Secondly, it should be presented with God's word. I like to use what's called The Romans Road. Starting in the book of Romans, chapter 3, verse 23, we read: "...all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" This describes all mankind under the same condition "fallen short of God's glory." Whether rich or poor, strong or weak, ruler or servant, etc. Next in that same chapter, verse 10:"As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one." This helps reiterate the point that no one will get into heaven based on their own goodness. Moving into Romans chapter 5, verse 12: "...Therefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." This is a good scripture to explain why man is dead spiritually and how we got this way. In Romans chapter 6: 23 we see more about this: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." OK, two major points here: it's important to explain that there are wages due to us (for our sins) and that either we must receive them ourselves or someone must go and receive those wages for us. A good quick reference is in Isaiah which plainly states, "the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all". Jesus has received those wages. The second point is best made with a simple illustration. I usually take a dollar bill and insert it into a book and say, "If I wanted to give you a hundred dollar bill, but I put it inside of this book, you'd have to take the book in order to receive the gift, right?" (Let them take the book out of your hands to reveive the dollar). Then, repeat the last part of that verse, "...the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." A good closing verse is found in Romans 10: 9, where it says, "That if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." Emphasis should be placed on the phrase, "you SHALL BE SAVED." That's God's promise! Don't forget to pray for the people you share this with and let them confess Jesus as Lord... Oh yeah, and have fun! Let God's love shine through you! |